We get to play with some fun power tools now that we’re in the sanding stage!! Our carpenter took the two cabinet doors above the fridge and put in wood panes (in the future they’ll have glass in them) that matched. They look great, but the only problem is the original door frames have about...

Thought I’d share the latest updates! The above picture was taken right before our contractor used self-leveling cement in the oven area. At this point, we had finished priming the sink cupboard and we painted in the inside of the upper one “Russell Green.” I think it might be a winner! Still kind of hard...

Our contractor has been hard at work while we’ve been priming/ installing toilets and and it’s paying off! Here’s a picture of the beautiful, smooth floor courtesy of self-leveling cement that our contractor used. Instead of a pile of brick rubble on the bottom that would make placing an oven over it kind of difficult,...

Let the fun begin! I know what David and I will be up to this weekend… getting the plywood cupboard boxes primed! How fun does that sound? We chose Valspar Bare Wood Primer (sold at Lowe’s for $8.98 per can) because, frankly, it’s what the guy at the paint desk recommended. We’re using pretty...

We are Taking Care of Business! Things are moving and shaking with the kitchen! Up above you can see pictures of the new wood cabinet base for the future farmhouse sink (and the hidden trash can with a drawer above it) and the built-in wine rack!!! Ahh! While our contractor/ carpenter...

As you can tell from above, the “before” kitchen had a lot going on. The top kitchen cabinet doors had stained glass door inserts and bottom had a busy wallpaper. The door frames themselves, however, were solid wood (painted white) and in good condition. The pictures below were taken by the talented Claire...

To quote Andre Agassi, “Life will throw everything but the kitchen sink in your path, and then it will throw the kitchen sink.” Remodeling a kitchen is a serious commitment. It’s more than we realized when we first took on this project. One example: we didn’t budget for all the cooking we could no longer...

I’ve decided I want my kitchen to have the color green in it. (If you know me well, this is hardly a surprise because green’s always been my favorite color.) I feel like green is a good color for a kitchen because it is fresh but has the ability to be both energizing and relaxing....

I thought I’d share more kitchen demo with you tonight! Here’s a picture of the double wall oven and wall cabinet (you can see the dining room peeking through in the background) with the cabinet doors removed. David’s been taking out the wiring in the ceiling and inside the cabinets, I’ve been taking off the...

Here’s the layout of the kitchen without having touched a thing (please forgive my rudimentary Paint skills… for whatever reason I have not brushed up on them recently):With a budget of only $9,000, we’re going to try and preserve as much of the original kitchen/ layout as possible. There are a few things that I...

If you have ever taken down wallpaper before, you can understand my sentiment right now. Frustration. Exhaustion. Dejection. Forget climbing Everest or doing Bikram yoga every day for 30 days: if you want to find out what you’re made of and push yourself to the limit, take down two layers of wallpaper on the walls...

Not having any idea what we’re doing, we started taking things apart in the kitchen. The fluorescent lighting in the ceiling only half-worked anyway, so David tackled that first. We were shocked with how the fluorescent lighting had been wired: using stereo wires held together with silicone caulk coming out of makeshift outlets coming out...